


The Arms of Someone You Love

by OveliaGirlHaditRight



Category: Dark Angel (TV)
Genre: AU, AU for Pollo Loco, Alternate Universe, F/M, Fluff, Max and Logan Actually Getting Together Earlier Kind Of, Oneshot, Season 1, season one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:00:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25235836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OveliaGirlHaditRight/pseuds/OveliaGirlHaditRight
Summary: A Dark Angel AU, where it was actually Ben who died at the beginning of Pollo Loco, and Max agrees to having dinner with Logan to try and cheer up.
Relationships: Logan Cale | Eyes Only/Max Guevara | X5-452
Kudos: 1





	The Arms of Someone You Love

“Max… why don’t you come over and I’ll cook you dinner?" Logan asked Max over the phone, as he tried to cheer her up about Ben’s death. And, despite herself, it made Max's lips turn up the tiniest bit, even amidst her grief.

What was it that Logan had once told her? That in this short, brutal life, one needed to take every opportunity they could find to celebrate?

Well, that certainly sounded like a good idea to Max right now. She’d never been good with all of the sad feelings she should have been feeling, anyway. So she whispered somewhat brokenly into the receiver, "See you in an hour then, Meal Ticket." And as awful as it was, Max only somewhat regretted those last words. But she had had to say them, hadn’t she? Or risk breaking the careful illusion that she and Logan had meticulously created for their relationship.

...

Logan ended up making orange beef for Max... which was something she’d never even heard of before, since cows were especially hard to come by these days. And oranges could be, too, for anyone who didn’t live in Florida. But miracle of miracles, Logan had procured both things as only he could… and it was absolutely delicious. And absolutely what Max had needed on this shit day she was having.

"Thanks for making this, Logan,” the X5 said now, as she took a sip of the white wine he’d poured for her, because he was Logan and always had the best drinks for every meal. “… And for even using blood oranges to do so—it somewhat redeems red and blood to me after losing Ben. Y'know?"

And Logan, surprisingly, seemed... touched by Max's words, in a way she'd never seen him be before, as his face lit up with the slightest smile. And she had to wonder if she’d finally gotten through to him that he was worth something…. worth so much, really.

"To be honest... I didn't do it for that reason, Max. That thought about colors didn't hit me, even if it seems so obvious now. But I'm glad I was still able to somehow make you happy with it."

And the look he was giving her now was so similar to ones he’d worn when he’d been in the hospital—after his blood transfusion—before she’d taken their kiss in front of the cabin back. And Max wanted to run away... because the idea anyone could want her to feel positive emotions at all was too much for her. And it even reminded her of the feeling she'd had with Hannah, where she’d imagined she was safe and warm for the first time ever—that was scary in and of itself—and it was only in digging her fingernails into the armrest of the chair she was in, that Max kept herself from bolting.

"Logan... I gotta be honest here—and I don't know why; maybe because I'm actually looking for a reason to ruin this night, like everything always gets ruined for us—but today…I thought the body was Ben's victim at first and not him, okay? We were… taught to kill like that back at Manticore. And if it had been one of Ben’s victims instead of him... I would have called this whole dinner thing off, knowing you wouldn't want to be around someone who consorts with killers... but I'm glad it didn't go that way."

"Max..." Logan choked out after Max’s confession: a confession that had made her leave her seat at the table, and head towards the couch and large window behind it, that she’d stared at who knew how many times now? In her peripheral vision, Max could see Logan reach a hand towards her—and she only slightly flinched at it—which shocked her. Max had thought for sure that Logan would put on his Eyes Only persona here and wish to be judge, jury, and executioner, perhaps… but he wasn’t. Instead, tears seemed to sting at his eyes, and at had Max whirling around to face him again, completely taken aback.

"Max... while I'm glad that the situation didn't go that way, either, know that I would never judge you for that kind of stuff. …I know that Manticore made you do horrific things that you would never want to do... And I hope I've shown you how I will be by your side, no matter what."

Max supposed that Logan _had_ shown that—and, in fact, all of the times that he’d saved her life recently began playing in her head—but she still wasn't sure that she trusted it. How many guys had told her that before, in just trying to ring the gong? But this was _Logan_.

"…Let's just eat," Max decided to simplify things, as she walked back to the dining room table—too enthusiastically, she knew—as she tried to stave off the awkwardness of this conversation. She didn’t quite know what to do with it.

And eat they did... quietly, like the night they had when she'd gone to save Zack from Manticore. And not wanting to go through that awful “date” again, Max finally found her voice again, as she complimented Logan on his cooking like usual. “Logan, this is great… And, God. I can’t even believe these words are about to come out of my mouth… but I don't just mean the food. Maybe- maybe we _could_ try to be something together again... but I'd rather not do it in response to Ben's death."

And Logan wheeled over to Max and looked at her intently now… and it wasn’t unlike the expression he’d worn when he'd done that Eyes Only broadcast for her to save her sibs. Just why did he seem to care about her and them so much? What was in it for him? Max found herself pondering this, as she tried not to swoon in knowing the answer to all of these questions, even though she was still afraid to.

"And I would never ask you to, Max. I know science, and I know facts... and I know tragedy can sometimes push people into intimate settings with each other… and that when the dust settles, it isn’t real and never was.”

There wasn't any bitterness or self-loathing in Logan's voice as he told Max this, she noted. He really seemed to be all about her needs for the night... and it made Max love him all the more, even though she hated saying that word to herself, since Manticore had fucked her up good.

And just as it began to rain outside again—for the three-hundred-and-fifty-seventh time now, Max supposed—she looked over to Logan and told him without missing a beat, "And they also push you into the arms of someone you love."

And the couple watched the rain fall together, again, as the sun began to rise on Seattle. And this time, Max made a move as she laced her fingers with Logan’s and squeezed.

**Author's Note:**

> This story was kind of hard to write… as much as I love Max and Logan, they’re always sort of hard to write. Because you want them to get together, of course, but you also want them to be in-character, and their in-character selves can be so bad at humaning with each other. So, it’s a tight line we fanfic writers for them walk, but hopefully this was decent and at least somewhat believable.
> 
> Also, I know in canon that Logan was horrified for a while about the murder Max was forced to do as a kid, but I feel the different situation in this AU could have made him respond differently here… and he did.


End file.
